Note : for each activities, limited space for 15 participants
In case of too many inscriptions, priority will be given to people identifying as women, trans, femme et queer. In that case, attendees would receive an email for self identification and confirmation.

The third iteration of the THF! will be held on unceded Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) territory (Tio’tia:ke a.k.a island of Montreal) from August 18 to 22, 2016. The previous two THFs were held in the post-capitalist eco-industrial colony called Calafou (Catalonia) in 2014 and in Puebla, Mexico in 2015. The historical intentions behind the THF! are multifold. The event aims at addressing the lack of women, queer, trans and diversity in technological fields in general and hacking more specifically. But even more so, it aims at creating a community that critically assesses the hegemonic narratives around technologies, the modernity aspects of its underlining Western assumptions and its inhenrent capitalist inflections, among others.

The THF! will follow an open space technology** methodology to organise collectively its daily agenda. Since organising will start online, we encourage you to send your proposals of talks, workshops and activities, with your needs (material, space, etc.) early on. The THF! is guided by a community agreement*** and follows “HackingWithCare” and “chill hacking” principles, which give attention to individual and collective care, needs and time. Moreover, we believe that theoretical understandings are not subordinated to the practical requirements of computational protocols. In both our practice and conceptual framwork we embrace ambiguity, malleability, messiness, and unknowability, among others.

This year the THF! will focus on four main streams, namely: Decolonizing Technologies, Autonomous Infrastructures, Queer and Feminist Pedagogies and Hacking with Care.

Decolonizing Technologies

For the THF! 2016, we take as a starting point the assumption that colonialism has invaded and embedded the digital realm and our technologies in general. Jodi Dean calls part of this process “communicative capitalism,” Ulises Mejias warns us how the network broadens participation yet also exacerbates disparity, increasing exlcusion rather than inclusion, Nicole Starosielski talks about the inherent and continuous colonial relationships embedded in the undersea cables, meanwhile we are reminded of the materiality of technologies in Parks’ and Starosielski’s work: Signal traffic.

How then can we imagine the decolonization of technologies and of cyberspace? What would such processes, epistemologies, and practices entail? How can feminist anti-colonial, post-colonial, and/or indigenous frameworks shape and strengthen our analysis in our collective reflection on such questions? At the methodological level, can radical speculative fiction or storytelling a la Octavia’s Brood (2015) help us produce our vision(s) of decolonized technologies? In this stream we will explore the intricacies of colonial technologies while at the same time trying to conceive what decolonial technologies mean.

Autonomous Infrastructures

While we recognise that no infrastructure can be fully autonomous, since autonomy is relative and as they depend, for instance, on already existing communication networks and technologies designed by mainstream companies (such as computers, servers, undersea cables, and access devices), what does it mean for us to conceive and use autonomous infrastructures? Such infrastructures may be diverse in scope and in shape, but they seem to share a desire to create the conditions for their autonomy in terms of their governance models, the values they embrace and the principles they promote. What then are these values, how can we make sense of them and put them in practice? In this stream, we would like to explore the very concept and practice of autonomous infrastructures. What are autonomous infrastructures ? Are there differences between the “Global North” and “Global South” in their understanding of autonomous infrastructures? Is hacking technological system(s) and communication networks from within also considered autonomous infrastructures?

Queer, Feminist and Anti-Racist Pedagogies

What are the queer, feminist and anti-racist pedagogies that inform our work? How, in turn, are theses pedagogies informing and shaping the direction of our queer, feminist and anti-oppressive hacker movement? What are the relationships between queer, feminist and anti-racist pedagogies and the technologies we aim at using and creating (whether decolonial, autonomous, transfeminist, etc.)? What differentiates the pedagogie(s) we embrace from the pedagogies of other hacker culture(s)? What is the significance of using such pedagogies in our work? This stream will allow us to question, deepen and share such pedagogies. Our ultimate desire for this stream is to start the co-production of a manual about what we mean by queer, feminist and anti-racist pedagogies. Such a manual will be invaluable for our work (teaching FemCrypt, gender and tech institutes, etc.). Clearly articulating the pedgaogies that sustain our work will help us take stock of where we are, who we are and where we want to go.

Hacking with Care

The issue of care is central for and integral to queer, feminist and anti-racist hackers. In this stream the concept of hacking with care is understood as a practice which foregrounds the art(s) of well-being as powerful means to encourage, mirror and sustain connexion to ourself, altruism, and to embody a web of trust. With Hacking with Care, we wish to contribute to the resiliency and “prosperity” of what we see as an extended network of caregivers: hackers-activists, lawyers, journalists, artists, whistle-blowers, and many others with or without a “profession” or a “name”, distant and near, free and imprisoned, each and everyone of us a node in this human support network. We would like to include activities for reimbodiement and mindfullness, with chilling and resting area, exploration in nature, massage workshops and cryptodances.

Sending Your Proposal

We invite you to propose workshops, talks, performances, projections, concerts or any other activity you wish to add to the program. If you are able to, kindly send us your abstract (summary) of your activity and your needs (material, space, etc.) by June 30, 2016 at femhack@lists.riseup.net.

Note that you will be able to send proposals after the deadline and/or amend your sent abstract at any time. The deadline is for planning arrangement purposes.

* We acknowledge that we are proposing the THF! to take place on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka. The Kanien’kehá:ka are the keepers of the Eastern Door of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The island of “Montreal” is known as Tio’tia:ke in the language of the Kanien’kehá:ka. Historically, this location was a meeting place for other Indigenous nations, including the Algonquin peoples.
** To read about Open Space Technology visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology

CFP-en
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Next FemHack event is going to happen 15-16-17 april.
It will a 3 days workshop retrait at The Bulbs
in val david, untitled Fix It Together.

We think about it as a mutual help moment,
to take care of things, beings and spirits together

Lets unleash our imaginations
lets bring needs and skills together
and welcome them and us for a collective time.

From laptop opening to data backup
from phone jail breaking to reinvigorating walks in nature
from sock darning to body and mind care
from furniture fixing to healing et visionary tales
(the house will also needs some forms of care and fixing (as the roof is leaking and the workspace would need some love to be transformed into a hackerspace.)

Practical info:
– tools
There is a workshop with some tools there
(elecrtric wood saw, soldering, hammer…)
if you need specific tools, ask.
if you have some specifics ideas with tools, share

– sleeping space
the house can host 8-9 humans beings
so book your spot as soon as possible
animals are welcome

– cost:
you’ll be hosted in goldjian house,
which actually run with a insuffisiant budget
consider contributing to the tea pot in the cabin
or with some other forms of love:
https://pad.riseup.net/p/LesBulbesAiment

– food:
we ll share food in a potluck way
mention your allergies, intolerences and preferences
as well as what your’e planning to bring

As soon as possible, please write to femhack@lists.riseup.net
-1. When: if you are interested and when you d be coming
-2. Car: if you have or need a vehicule, and how places you have/need.
-3. What: ce que vous pensez apporter comme outils, comme projet,
-4. Food: ce que vous penez apporter comme nourriture, si vous avez des allergies

Organized by Foufem, the Montreal Women and Feminist Hacker group, this whole-day event represents a marathon of activities on a number of tech & art topics. The aim is to demystify technologies, learn from peers, and create a core group of local women interested in technologies and hacking. There will be hands-on workshops, presentations, art performances & craft experiments. The event is experiment-friendly, diversity-friendly, innovation-friendly and errors-friendly. It is dedicated to (self-identified) women, techno-feminists, their children and allies.
November 17th 2012 10am – 6pm @ Espace Fibre: 2665 rue Augustin-Cantin, 2nd Floor (MAP : http://goo.gl/maps/rdJjP)
To participate, edit the Participants page

(as part of http://www.htmlles.net/2012/ ) (the event will be bilingual cf FemHack en français ) November 17th 2012

10am – 6pm @ Espace Fibre: 2665 rue Augustin-Cantin, 2nd Floor http://www.espacefibre.com/ (MAP : http://goo.gl/maps/rdJjP)
To participate, edit the Participants page or confirm your presence at: foufem@lists.riseup.net
Organized by Foufem, the Montreal Women and Feminist Hacker group, this whole-day event represents a marathon of activities on a number of tech & art topics. The aim is to demystify technologies, learn from peers, and create a core group of local women interested in technologies and hacking. There will be hands-on workshops, presentations, art performances & craft experiments. The event is experiment-friendly, diversity-friendly, innovation-friendly and errors-friendly. It is dedicated to (self-identified) women, techno-feminists, their children and allies. Continue reading →